Top Essays USB Drive

This USB drive contains 100 of the top This I Believe audio broadcasts of the last ten years, plus some favorites from Edward R. Murrow's radio series of the 1950s. It's perfect for personal or classroom use! Click here to learn more.

Imagine you have just gotten off work: you had to stay late and it is already dark out. Just as you pull out your keys to stick them in the door, you look up. You see a star filled sky, millions of bright shinning jewels sparkling against pure black. Right at that moment one of those jewels darts across the sky. You forget about your long day at work and are grateful for having been able to witness such a sight. You were a part of nature for only a brief moment, and in the moment nature took your worries away. Nature possesses great beauty, and nature is everywhere, from the rolling hills off in the distance, to a single tree planted in a front yard. Nature provides warmth and solace from a world plagued with troubles and tribulations. It’s a welcomed distraction from the daily grind. I believe in taking time out of my day to spend in appreciation of nature.

Last year I hiked Bishop’s Peak with five of my good friends. We began just before sunset. We walked up dirt paths, with the sun intermittingly shining through the trees. After hiking for some time, the sun began to set and lit the sky with orange, pink, and purple colors, casting the trees in silhouettes. We reached the top of Bishop’s Peak just after dark. As if standing on top the world, we could see the city below, and the distinct glow of each individual light shinning up at us. As we rested atop the rock formations, the fog rolled in and in a matter of minutes the city and fields below were covered with a blanket of fog. A glow of orange and white upon the underside of the clouds replaced the shine of each individual light. The adjacent mountaintop poked through the layer of fog, and pointed towards a starlit sky. A calming sense came over me, sitting atop the clouds, experiencing nature and all of her beauty. At that moment my worries melted away. It didn’t matter that I hadn’t done my work that was due the next day, or that we came completely underprepared and had only one flashlight between the six of us. We sat up there for hours, in appreciation of the rare sight that none of us had experienced before. We all took the time out of our days to go experience nature and were greatly rewarded.

I am often taken by nature throughout the day. It’s not only when I’m in a picturesque scene pulled out of a painting, such as sitting atop the clouds, watching snow lightly flutter to the ground, the gentle ripples caused by a light breeze on the open lake, the rising sun melt the dew off of a pristine fairway, or the crash of waves against the sand and the splash of water as the ocean collides with shore. No, I am possessed with a sense of tranquility throughout any day just by peering at the rolling hills, noticing the sunset light the sky afire, gazing at a longstanding oak, peering out my blinds to see a lone palm stretched above the adjacent building tops, or even awaking to a blue and cloudless sky. It’s in these moments, whether lasting for hours or mere seconds, that nature takes hold of me. A smile slowly creeps across my face as I gaze upon the beauty of the world in which we live.

Essay of the Week

When she was young, Lauren LeBlanc had grand dreams of living in New York and singing on Broadway. Instead, she became a mom and schoolteacher in suburbia. While it’s not the life she once imagined, LeBlanc now knows she wouldn’t have it any other way. Click here to read her essay.